2.05.2008
Hamline English Dept: 2-0
Okay, so maybe it's not enough empirical evidence to validate a theory, but it seems to me that if you want good teaching at Hamline, your best bet is the English department. While I'm not sure anyone will surpass Professor K from last semester's LitCrit for sheer lightning-in-a-bottle-ness, tonight's first class with Professor D was quite good. [To refresh: this semester's literature class is The Orphan's Progress and Rise of the British Novel. We're starting with Defoe's Moll Flanders, then it's on to Dickens and Bronte, finally winding our way to Harry Potter.] Professor D is bright and intense but also seems pragmatic and easy-going. Most importantly, she knows how to run a college classroom, a skill in short supply during my nascent Hamline tenure (we're tentatively running 3-4 for that skill set with my professors thus far).
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6 comments:
I think Hamline's German department may have improved since I was at Macalester in the 1980's. The chair of their department, now deceased, was the director of the program the year I went to Vienna. (The directors rotated, each year someone from another ACTC school had the job.)
Oooh, do I have stories about him...
(Plus, his German totally sucked, and he used to have me teach the grammar for him.)
I think my college and grad school experience was about a 3-4 ratio too.
After a particularly bad class (horrific, just thinking about it now makes me want to hurt something) I said to my advisor, "I just flushed $2500 down the toilet. Is that what graduate school is supposed to be about?" And he said, "Well, it certainly was for me."
Telling that story kind of makes me want to hurt him all over again too.
I must go soothe myself now.
Hmmmm. It's almost enough to make you want to be an English major.
to eric m: i was thinking that very same thing. do you suppose it will occur to him too?
Maybe it is an English teacher thing. Maybe we just rock.
My grad school experience (English Lit, at St. Thomas) was 9-0.
Of course, I'm a "glass is full, even if there's some extra space in it" person who was thrilled not to have to grade anything for an entire year and happy not to be teaching the nastiest girl bully to ever stalk our high school's halls while I was away. Yeah, I timed my leave of absence out perfectly.
But back to the "English teachers kick ass" discussion. Perhaps we are so awesome because in studying lit theory, one learns to appreciate the de-centering of authority, which validates personal experience and multiple viewpoints.
Or maybe Scott is just getting lucky.
To deb: I've suggested it already. He wouldn't listen. Maybe you should work on him for a while.
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